The Holder of Longevity
In any city, in any country, go to any mental institution or halfway house you can get yourself to. When you reach the front desk, ask to visit someone who calls himself "The Holder of Longevity". The worker will seem to have been stricken violently ill, and in a hurry you will be guided to a clearing in the yard out behind the building. The worker will hurry quickly inside and lock the door. In the center of the clearing you will find a darkened patch of grass with every blade facing inward. Step into the center and close your eyes, and you will feel a sudden rush as the ground gives way like quicksand. Do not open your eyes at any point, even peeking will result in the ground hardening again and you will forever be encased in the Earth. Instead, hold your breath and count to ten, and you will feel yourself coming to a gradual stop. By the time you finish counting, your feet will rest on solid soil, and you may open your eyes. You will find yourself in a new clearing with a dirt floor and large stone pillars, perfect yet seemingly naturally formed, surrounding you in a ring. Beyond these pillars is only darkness, and from this darkness you will hear an inaudible murmur. No matter how close you come to the pillars the darkness will never depart, the murmurs will never grow louder, and you will never see what makes these sounds. Cross the pillars, and the darkness will reach out to encase you, and you will become a part of the mindless, unseen mass that you had previously sought. Never will you be freed. Should you remain in the boundary of the pillars you will notice a bell lying on the ground. Ring it, and suddenly you will feel the ground begin to quake. The bell will begin to dissolve into an ominous green aura that will hover like a cloud. Breath it in, and soon the ground beneath your feet shall begin to crack and rupture. The more the ground crumbles, the further your life will feel as though it is draining away from you. Your eyes will ache and sink in, your skin will pale and begin to hang from the deterioration of muscle, and you will feel as though you would die at any moment. Resist the temptation to fall with all your might and stand tall, and soon a great skeleton, fifteen times your size, will burst upward around you. Its hands will rest to the ground on either side of you as its massive skull looms above you, glaring down with the burning green flame deep within its empty sockets. Through your weakened state you will find that you have only strength for a single request, and there is only one that the great skeleton may answer, "Will I die here?". Should you ask incorrectly, attempting to correct yourself will cause your body to immediately collapse and you will be consumed by the darkness. If you ask the right question, the skeleton's eyes will glow brightly, blinding you, and your mind will be filled with a macabre, echoing voice. The voice will torment you to merely hear it, sapping the remains of your strength until you feel as though it is impossible to stand. It will tell you a long tale of a man who once found an ancient necklace made of gold and small bones. Whenever he moved in the proper direction the chain would seem to get longer, and whenever he made a mistake a bone would fall away. Eventually, after years of searching the necklace had led him to the catacombs of an ancient cemetery deep within a forgotten forest. As he entered the chain began to crumble to dust, allowing the bones to fall to the ground and return to the skeletons they had been gathered from. At the end of the hall was a single coffin. Within were the remains of a headless king. Only one bone remained, and that was a skull. As he placed it into the coffin the skull grew to proper size and returned itself to the remains. The coffin then filled with flame too hot to be natural, and once they cleared remained only ashes of bone. Within them was an old, cracked bell. Had you stood strong through every grueling detail of the story, the Bell's aura would finally be exhaled and ensnare the skeleton, igniting it into green flames. The Great One's bones will dissolve into black ash and fall before you. In the pile there is a small necklace of perfect gold and tiny bones. Put it on, and you will fall into a deep slumber where you will sleep for an entire year. You will awake at home in your own bed, feeling healthier than you ever have. As long as you wear this necklace you will never feel sickness or fatigue, but if it is ever removed every bit of weakness, fatigue, and sickness that would have befallen you since you came across the necklace will return, and the object will vanish. One of these bones is Object 277 of 538. Remove one, and you remove them all.